Bathroom update #2

Ok. I've decided to post about both Saturday and Sunday. I'm too excited about the Sunday progress to wait. And also tomorrow I will be doing more work in the loo and may not get around to posting. Here goes!

First came the paint. I decided to go with Benjamin Moore's Stonington Gray which is the same color as the master bedroom. Mostly because we had half a can of it leftover. I also painted the window frame Ultra-Bright White in a semi-gloss finish which is what we've been using for all of the windows in the house.

So this disgusting wall...

became this nice, clean, gray wall.

I took the gray all the way up to the ceiling and now the bathroom feels cozy and calm (when you're looking up...)

The paint looks uneven here but it wasn't dry yet when I took the pictures. While it was drying I went off to - you guessed it - Home Depot, to look for something to cover the hideous floor. 

Ed and I originally got the idea to just cover up the floor instead of ripping it out when we remembered we had an extra box of linoleum fake wood flooring leftover from the kitchen. Or at least we had seen a box in the attic... Turns out when I went up there to get the box down to start on the bathroom floor, I discovered there was only one strip left. About enough to cover 1 sq ft. So I needed something new...oh darn ;)

My mom had redone one of her bathroom floors with linoleum square tiles that you still grout like ceramic tile and the results were fantastic. Adding the grout makes a huge difference looks-wise. You can't even tell it's not real tile unless you touch it. And the best part? The tiles are $1.80 a piece. Cheapest. Flooring. Ever. 

Haha. "Ceramica"... nice try.

These tiles are peel and stick (awesome) but were pretty difficult to cut (not awesome). If I had to make a straight cut it wasn't too bad. I just lined up the corner that had to go and scored a line using a razor blade. Once the tile was scored, it broke off cleanly along the line.

However going around the toilet (the only obstacle I had to deal with) sucked. 

SUUUUCKED! 

Cutting an interior curved line was almost impossible. I had tin snips, kitchen scissors, a kitchen knife, and the razor blade and none of them worked very well. I just had to keep chipping away at it. Here is my best attempt at a curve...

Pretty awful right? I managed to clean it up a little bit by scoring straight lines around the chewed edges, and breaking off the pieces with some needle nose pliers. But still not great. Luckily, it fit pretty snugly around the commode.

So I cut, peeled and stuck down the tiles one by one...

I used spacers to keep everything nice and even.

Finally finished! Notice how it was light out when I started laying the tile... it took a while.

 The pre-mixed grout HD sells to go with these tiles dries really fast and can also be wiped off immediately after you put it down. So grouting took maybe 20 minutes. I decided to go with gray grout for a change.

Squish it on, wipe it off and voila!

Some other things happened on Sunday too.... here's a sneak peek.

Almost looks like a nice bathroom right? Now to do something about that pink tile....